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Summary

A collection of interviews with some of the most provocative artists of the postmodern era, including Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Carrie Mae Weems, Carolee Schneemann, Andres Serrano, Karen Finley, and Kathy Acker. These sculptors, writers, filmmakers, activists, and performance artists have forged a new vision of art that is confrontational, political, and concerned with interrupting the domination of our lives by mass culture.

"Interventions and Provocations is the most comprehensive collection of interviews published to date from socially engaged artists. The volume's breadth and diversity should earn it a place on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in contemporary culture. The book should also prove an invaluable resource for educators." -- David Trend, author of Cultural Democracy: Politics, Media, New Technology

This book presents interviews with some of the most provocative artists of the postmodern era, including Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Carrie Mae Weems, Carolee Schneemann, Andres Serrano, Karen Finley, and Kathy Acker. These sculptors, writers, filmmakers, activists, and performance artists have forged a new vision of art that is confrontational, political, and concerned with interrupting the domination of our lives by mass culture.

"This is a carefully selected and carefully edited set of interviews. While they range from the well known to the less known, these artists have all played important roles in shaping the discourse on political art. By allowing this group of articulate, socially committed artists to speak for themselves, this book fills important gaps in our understanding of their work." -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic, contributing editor, Art in America

A discursive range of positions presents significant issues of art, activism, and audiences. The dialogic structure of these interviews accommodates the reflections of artists stimulated by the preoccupations of critics and cultural observers; questions often are as provocative as responses. Throughout, the intimacy of shared conversation projects the urgency of ideas in development.

"Glenn Harper's thoughtful introduction offers an intellectual context for the emergence of this work. Framing a theoretical and historical background, he locates the work of these different artists between the margins and mainstream, the conceptual and ideological, and the aesthetic and social. These substantive, searching dialogues are a compelling reminder that critical investigation is clearly indispensable and unquestionably inconclusive. This book confirms that criticism, too, is a tactical project." -- Patricia C. Phillips, Dean, School of Fine and Performing Arts, State University of New York at New Paltz

Glenn Harper is Editor-in-Chief of Sculpture magazine and author of numerous articles on contemporary art.